A Halloween Recap

I'm kind of a brat about store-bought Halloween costumes ("store-bought", (snort) sounds very Little House on the Prairie, huh?). Anyway, I use everything at my disposal to coerce my kids into letting me make their costumes (eg. bribery, threats, begging, whatever it takes). Unfortunately, my older two boys are beyond convincing (even though the child who's costume I make ALWAYS wins the yearly costume contest). So, I give you the whacko from Scream (yawn):

And Skeleton Jester(snore):

Now that that's over with...Presenting super awesome Psycho Jack-in-the-box!!!!

Thank goodness, my munchkin let me make his costume this year (and he won the contest I might add). He wanted to be a scary, psychotic jack-in-the-box and I was more than happy to oblige.

The costume is nothing more than a cardboard box with the top and bottom removed. I painted it all old and spooky-like, and clipped on some suspenders to hold it in place.

A crank was fashioned from pvc pipe and plumbing connectors, then spray painted silver.

Put on a clown shirt, paint his face all scary-clownish, and plop a jester's hat on his head and he's good to go! Oh, I'm so glad he let me make his costume this year!

After trick-or-treat, we lit the bonfire (like I showed you last week) and partied on down with our neighbors. The adults sipped on spiked cider while the kids played in the woods behind us on the "Haunted Trail".

Want to make a Haunted Trail? Just string some ordinary twinkle lights into your nearest woods and use a heavy duty staple gun to tack up all sorts of creatures from the Dollar Tree. Some masks and capes on branches for monsters and it's a spooky playground!

Oh, and what happens to a bonfire tended by 3 men late into the night after a few too many spiked ciders? Well, everything flammable gets thrown in and your Adirondack chairs will be in danger of incinerating. Men...